Women's Issues, Peace, Creativity & Spirituality

Monthly Archives: January 2016

When I was a little girl of 9 years old, my Grandpa gave me a picture book called The Camps, showing scenes from the Holocaust and the concentration camps. When I asked him why he gave me this book of black and white photographs, he told me the story of the Holocaust, and about the millions of people — mostly Jews, but also Poles, political prisoners, Gypsies and other “undesirables” from as far away as Brazil and America — who had been taken from their homes, stripped of all their possessions, and thrown into camps where, over the course of World War II, the Nazis killed over 6 Million people.

It didn’t matter whether they were rich or poor, or if they were a doctor or a shoeshine boy; if they were a mother or a grandmother, the Nazis herded them into train cars and took them to one of the 300 camps that the allies found when they liberated Germany from Nazi rule in 1945.

Grandpa told me that it was imperative that we always remember what Hitler and his followers had done, and what the German people let themselves be talked into, because if we ever forgot, it could happen again.

I’ve always remembered it, and I have visited more than one Holocaust museum here in the United States.

It’s not a fun day trip, like going to an art museum or a museum of natural history, but it’s important. I can always hear Grandpa telling me “we must remember, so it cannot happen again”

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is important that we not allow ourselves to be pushed into the herd; that we think for ourselves; that we analyze what politicians are saying and that we vote wisely — and that we do actually vote.

The allies took German people to the camps which the Allies had liberated, because it was the only way to prove to these German people that these camps actually existed, and that thousands were gassed to death in communal “showers” and thrown into mass graves, or that people were put into ovens like loaves of bread dough. There are still those who do not believe it happened, but we have proof.

In 1985, 40 years after Allied Forces marched into Germany and liberated the Camps, Frontline ran a show about what the soldiers saw and found when they arrived.

But there’s a longer piece, edited and filmed in part by Alfred Hitchcock, which you can watch, below, which shows the horrors that were found. Horrors which we can never forget, or else we will allow them again. Don’t turn away from the horror. It is real and it was genocide. Just like the other countries which have been devastated by genocide. We must not allow politicians to tell us what to think or to do. We must be strong enough to stand up and fight those who lack human compassion and the ability to love others. Intolerance must not be abided in any country. To the six million people who were imprisoned, beaten, starved, experimented on, I can only whisper,” Rest in Peace.”

I usually look at the big picture. When I think of my children and grandchildren, all nine of them, I like to imagine what the great grandchildren and great great children would be like. Then I try to imagine the world we will be leaving them. I must confess that I don’t feel as hopeful as I did in the sixties.

In the 60’s, we really wanted a peaceful world filled with love, kindness, compassion and equality. We didn’t achieve it. I hope history will show that we tried. I hope that we can leave the next generations a beautiful world where people think about each other and offer a helping hand. I hope that they will honor Mother Earth and save her. I hope that they all find a spiritual path, but understand that they should not war and fight over the various paths.

I hope that they believe trees and flowers are more important than money. I hope they will not be racist or judgemental. I hope they develop the ability to look at other human beings and see the similarities, not the differences. I hope they can see beyond what gratification they want and find their happiness in love of their fellow human beings.

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Ina, will Croatia ever become a peaceful country without hatred and racism?
I wish I could talk to you and understand it the way you do. The United Nations should step in and require that all the rhetoric and hate speech end immediately. I realize that I am not very knowledgeable about this but
why can’t Serbs have Serbia and Croatians have Croatia? So many innocent lives sacrificed for what? Surely, there are those who want peace.
Is peace impossible? Hugs, Barbara

No judge, no jury – Croatia’s e-media (electronic media regulatory body in Croatia) has decided last week to temporarily shut down the broadcasting of Z1 TV programs as its draconian and utterly communist Yugoslavia-style response to opinion or comment expressed by TV program “Markov Trg” (Mark’s Square) host Marko Juric and an utterly ugly and hateful lynch against Juric was thus unleashed in public without any regard to justice or justification and indeed the right to “fair comment”, which – by the way – is and has been a solid rock for journalists to hold onto in defense of their opinions or comments throughout developed democracies of the Western world. Regretfully, Croatian democracy or democratic thought and deed have a long way to go before it can safely be said that Croatian citizens are truly safe…

While the rest of the East Coast continued to dig out from underneath Winter Storm Jonas, Mainers enjoyed a sunny day during which the mercury crept into the mid-forties, Modern Philosophers!

How did Maine, the state that is so often the focus of Snow Miser’s wrath, manage to avoid even a flurry during the Great Blizzard of 2016?

The answer was clear today at Bangor City Hall, where Maine’s most powerful Witches were honored for their Protection Against Jonas Spell.

Waltzing Matilda, Volcanica Ivy, and Ti-Diana were presented the Stephen King Medal of Honor, the highest award that can be bestowed upon a Maine citizen who is not a member of the Armed Forces.

The ladies, who are my good friends, the leaders of Maine’s largest coven, and co-owners of Three Toads & A Wicked Lady, Maine’s most popular Witch bar, accepted their medals from Mayor Ben Sprague as a…

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When a man and a woman of any age go out, she is consenting to dinner and perhaps a movie. When they meet in a bar, if they decide to go home together they maybe thinking of having sex, perhaps. At any moment either of them has the right to change their minds. This is called consent. Even if they are lying together upon a bed, one of them has the right to say, NO! You can’t ignore a NO. You can’t force the other person out of No, because doing so is a crime. All you can do is to get up and put your clothes on and leave.

Remember, if the other person says No!, you must heed this NO! If you try to force the issue, you are a jerk (male/female) and you will probably end up in jail. There is no glory or satisfaction in that. The other person owns their body and has the right to give permission to enjoy it or to say you can’t use their body. They don’t have to explain, they merely need to say NO! For Example:

OLD NOTEBOOKS: In the midst of my contemplation of this Chinese Buddha, along comes an image that becomes a memory; it’s all these objects of reverence and holy things that seem to clutter this central object of focus, the continous chanting by Buddhists from all countries and dressed in different kinds of costumes with bells and accessories, and accouterments… and my own sense of reverence.

When I was a young guy I stayed with an Anglican priest in a Victorian vicarage until I could find my own place. It was my first job, supply teacher in a rough high school in East London, just before Christmas and I hadn’t really thought about it, coming from the far North East, a heritage of strong whisky, fishing boats in the North Sea and gales. Christmas wasn’t meaningful there.

By comparison, everything in London seemed soft and gentle, small wrapped gifts from everyone…

Help Save a Child

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HANDS UP 4 JUSTICE APP

The Hands Up 4 Justice audio and video APP records encounters with law enforcement. This APP was created to video and audio record encounters with law enforcement for your safety. The best use of the APP once pulled over by the police, turn on the front facing camera and start recording..

Protests – Black Lives Matter

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KEEP EYES ON THE POLICE. NATIONAL POLICE VIOLENCE MAPPING TOOL.

Tool designed to help you hold Elected Officials accountable for police violence.

Hank Johnson Justice Fund

NO JUSTICE, NO MONEY
In the wake of the killings of unarmed black men and boys and the outrageous failure to prosecute their killers, Hank Johnson is introducing the Grand Jury Reform Act. This bill will prohibit the use of a grand jury when determining whether to prosecute a police officer in the event of a death. The status quo isn’t working. The evidence is clear. The people are demanding a real response from their elected leaders.

I am a retired widow with 4 kids and 9 grands. I worked as a nurse, and in Domestic Violence, and many non-profits, I was a donor health counselor for the American Red Cross and am a certified HIV counselor. I worked as a counselor and I have been a make-up artist and selling specialists for several American designers. I love life. I am very spiritual. I grew up in 50's and 60's and truly am the idealistic rebel which is the name of my blog. I love music, books, reading, Kindle, beauty. I am a photographer and an artist. I believe in making the world better one day at a time. I am now living in Asheville, NC.